Australian hoteliers told to focus on value

Australian hoteliers have been told to focus less on the detrimental impact of the high Australian dollar and more on improving their offering so it warrants the asking price.

Inbound tourist numbers have languished since the Australian dollar hit parity with the US dollar.

Tourism Australia managing director
Andrew McEvoy
said the Australian tourism industry needed to accept that it was never going to be a mass-market destination and concentrate on high-value tourists.

“The dollar is the dollar – we can’t do a lot about that," he said. “We really just need to focus on where is the market that we can capitalise on, how do we get it and how do we do well out of the market that does exist?"

Michael Issenberg
, chairman and chief operating office of Australia’s biggest hotel company Accor Asia Pacific, said Australia was a “niche", high-volume destination. Operators and hoteliers needed to be more concerned about the yield reaped from each visitor, rather than the volume of inbound tourists.

“Don’t worry about the dollar," he said. “If we try and be cheap, we are going to lose. We are never going to out-cheap Asia. That isn’t going to happen.

“We are a niche product and we need to think that way and go after the markets that want to come to Australia and make it a special place. It is not about being cheap, it’s about being value and about being quality."

The sentiment is reflected in the latest United Nations World Tourism Organisation figures, which showed that of the 180 countries surveyed, Australia came in 48th in terms of visitor volumes but 10th in terms of amount spent.